Wilde at Heart (Wilde Security, #3)(42)
Reece opened his mouth but snapped it shut again without uttering a sound. “Shit,” he said after a moment. “You’re right. I’ll add her to my spreadsheet.”
Oh God. He was trying to find his blackmailer with a spreadsheet? That was adorable, but Shelby had lived with her sister and Cam long enough to know that crime wasn’t solved by spreadsheets. The poor guy was doomed. “You should tell your brothers what’s going on, Reece. At this point, it’s silly to keep it from them. They already know we’ve been together, so the pictures aren’t going to faze them. They’re trained investigators. They can help.”
He said nothing for so long, she didn’t think he was going to answer. “I know,” he finally admitted softly. “But I’d rather handle it myself. Greer’s gone MIA again and Vaughn’s obsessing over the disappearance of Lark Warren. Cam and your sister just got married, and it’s only courteous to wait at least a month before dumping my shit on them. And Jude…something’s going on with him, too. He’s been moping lately.”
“Oh, I know why. He and Libby want a baby.”
He jumped like she’d poked him in the side with a knife. “They what?”
“Yeah, Libby said they’ve been trying for a few months now, since their wedding, but keep getting disappointed. They’re both pretty bummed about it.”
He stared at her for a solid ten seconds until the light they were sitting at turned green. “How do you know all this?”
She lifted a shoulder. “People talk to me. It’s a gift.” And a curse, but she wasn’t ready to open that can of worms with him yet. If she didn’t have the unique ability to get people to open up to her, she wouldn’t be trapped under Jason Mallory’s thumb now.
“A baby?” Reece said, shell-shocked. “They want a baby?”
“That’s usually how it works. First comes love, then comes marriage, then the baby carriage.”
“B-but—” He actually stuttered. “No. That’s… I can’t picture Jude as a father.”
“Really? I think he’ll make a great one. He has a good sense of humor, which I’ve heard is essential for parenting. Have you ever wanted kids?” The question slipped out without her permission, and she silently cursed herself for it. None of her business. Nope. His answer was not even a little bit her business.
“No,” he said with absolutely no inflection in his voice.
“Yeah.” A small ache throbbed in the center of her chest. She resisted the urge to rub at it. “Me neither.”
They rode the last bit of their trip in silence until Reece guided the SUV into the driveway of a gorgeous brick colonial that looked like something out of a magazine.
“We’re here,” he said, shutting off the engine.
“Where?”
“The house I grew up in.”
She looked at the house again and, yes, she could so easily picture that childhood, one so far removed from her own she’d often wondered if that kind of life was even real. But she could picture Christmas lights under the eaves of the pointed roof and a wreath on the front door welcoming visitors. Could see the five Wilde boys running around in the large, sloped front yard, starting snowball wars and building forts. During the spring and summer, they probably climbed that big maple tree and swung in the tire still hanging from the lowest branch. They had probably run through that front door with all kinds of bumps and bruises and scrapes, hoping for their mother to kiss the boo-boos better. Maybe there had even been a broken arm or two and a few rushed trips to the nearest emergency room.
It was the kind of house she and Eva had dreamed about growing up in, the kind they’d seen on TV shows featuring happy families.
Shelby blinked hard, appalled that her vision had started to blur. “Why did you bring me here?”
“You didn’t believe me when I said I know how different feels.” He pushed open his door, and cold air rushed inside. “Come on.”
Like the driveway, the path to the door had been cleared of snow recently. She knew none of the brothers lived here, so they must have hired someone to plow.
No, not “they,” she realized, watching as Reece found the right key and slid it into the lock. This was all his doing. He paid for the upkeep of his empty childhood home. There was something tragic about that, and her heart melted a little.
Inside, the house wasn’t dusty, but it did smell unused. It was like a time capsule, transporting her twenty years into the past, as if the brothers couldn’t bear to change anything from the way it was the day their parents died.
Reece moved around the living room, turning on lamps, upping the temperature on the thermostat until the heat kicked on. Then he just stood there in the middle of the room, seemingly at a loss.
She wasn’t sure what he expected her to say, so she said nothing and wandered. The stairs to the second floor were positioned at the back of the living room and shared a wall with the dining room, which had a table big enough to fit the entire Wilde family—dad, mom, and all five boys. She imagined dinnertime at that table had been a loud, exasperating, and entertaining family affair.
Colorful marks on the narrow strip of wall between the stairs and the dining room caught her attention, and she moved in for a closer look. A height chart, indicating the Wilde boys’ growth from toddlers to young men. She could track Reece from the time he was a year old, all the way up to the last mark, dated several months before his parents died. He would have been thirteen at the time and looked to have hit a growth spurt, shooting up over his younger brothers, though Greer was still taller than him by quite a bit. Made sense because Greer was a huge guy. Like, intimidatingly big.